Have a question about the origins of photosynthesis? Museum researchers Eunsoo Kim and Rob DeSalle will answer questions about new research on the topic, the Museum’s cutting-edge microscopy lab and its microbial collection, and more, in a live Google+ Hangout, Friday, June 21, at 1 pm (Eastern Time).

How did photosynthesis develop hundreds of millions of years ago? Dr. Eunsoo Kim and colleagues have shown the first definitive proof of what is thought to be a critical step in the evolution of photosynthesis, or the conversion of light into food, in algae and land plants. Photosynthetic plants, in turn, were responsible for raising the levels of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere and paving the way for the rise of animals.

Watch a video about the research.

Dr. DeSalle is a curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History and a professor at the Museum’s Richard Gilder Graduate School. Dr. DeSalle works in molecular systematics, microbial evolution, and genomics. His current research concerns the development of bioinformatic tools to handle large-scale genomics problems using phylogenetic systematic approaches.